Today, European cars permeate the lineups of domestic automakers. The Ford Fiesta, Focus and Fusion, for example, differ only in minor trim details from their counterparts across the pond. But these Fords weren’t the first Europeans in domestic showrooms. In the 1970s, the Ford Capri was sold through Lincoln-Mercury dealers and was at one point America’s second best-selling import. Opel sedans, wagons and coupes were sold through Buick dealers. Entering the 1980s, domestic automakers’ cars became closer in concept to European and Japanese offerings as the Big 3 eschewed rear-wheel-drive, body-on-frame V8 passenger cars in favor of smaller, lighter, front-wheel-drive offerings with fours and V6s. But as many domestic cars transitioned to this new normal, the number of European imports wearing domestic nameplates actually shrunk and the 1980s and 1990s were almost a dead zone for European offerings despite the vast number of competitive offerings from Ford Europe and Opel. The Merkur XR4Ti flew over from Europe like a missionary, bright-eyed and full of vigor, to preach the virtues of German engineering, but failed to convert Americans who flocked to the Church of BMW to sing their Teutonic psalms instead. How did the XR4Ti fail?

No Merkur article can be complete without first addressing the name. “A rose by any other name would sell as sweet” is not a principle that applies in automotive marketing. Ford’s desire to establish a separate brand identity for its imported models is understandable, but the Merkur name was confusing, hard to pronounce and yet oddly close to “Mercury” (it was indeed German for Mercury). Whether this deterred buyers is arguable, but it likely hindered marketing efforts.

The odd name graced two products: the Scorpio and the XR4Ti, featured here. Both were European Fords – the Scorpio and Sierra, respectively – offered in America as alternatives to the European brands. Although the XR4Ti was a mainstream, mid-size offering in Europe – albeit quite unorthodox in retaining a rear-wheel-drive layout – it was pitched in North America as a premium sport sedan alternative.

Ford spent $50 million to federalize the Sierra for North America, with a lot of that money spent on ensuring it met safety and emissions standards. But although the Sierra did not suffer the tortured Americanization process endured by Euros like the first VW Rabbit and Saturn L-Series, there was one major change made: the engine.

The flagship Sierra in Europe was powered by a 2.8 V6, but Ford found engineering it to meet US emissions standards robbed it of too much power. Instead, the XR4Ti received a modified version of the 2.3 turbo four seen previously in the Mustang SVO and Thunderbird Turbo Coupe. In those applications, the four had a reputation for being buzzy and full of unpleasant vibrations. Extensive modifications were made; Ford engineers stated the problem wasn’t with the old engine itself, but rather the manifolds and various engine-driven accessories. A new intake manifold and some new mounting brackets for the power steering pump helped quell the engine’s NVH. The gutsy, Brazilian-built turbo four delivered 170hp and 195 ft-lbs of torque, running on premium unleaded fuel: this bested the Euro-market Sierra’s V6 by 20hp and 36 ft-lbs.

The basic Sierra platform remained intact, with MacPherson struts up front and an independent rear suspension with semi-trailing arms. A five-speed manual transmission was standard, but the only automatic was a three-speed when four-speed automatics were becoming the norm; you also lost a sizeable 30hp by choosing the slushbox. Rear drum brakes were another dated touch.

The various changes made to the XR4ti did increase weight by 280 pounds (to 2920), with most of that attributed to the safety enhancements. But the new American bumpers actually helped improve the car’s aerodynamics, and the XR4ti was still good for a 0-60 of around 7.5 seconds.

The 1980s were a decade of futuristic interiors and digital instruments, but the XR4Ti’s cabin was very monochromatic and restrained. Radio and HVAC controls were cluttered but helpfully angled towards the driver, and there was room for 4 average-sized adults. The front seats were bolstered, supportive Recaro buckets. Despite the rear-wheel-drive format, the rear seat was quite roomy, too.

Outside, you either loved the XR4Ti or you hated it. The basic body was a few years old by the time it arrived stateside, but Ford’s new aerodynamic design language was still a stark contrast to what was being sold at GM or Chrysler dealers. The mid-size hatchback body style was also somewhat of a novelty. More of a novelty was the bi-plane rear spoiler, a striking touch that Ford soon deleted.

A fairly compact, rear-wheel-drive platform from Europe with an independent rear suspension would seem like something that would please enthusiasts but critical and consumer reception was mixed. Road & Track were critical of the XR4Ti’s refinement and dearth of low-end torque, although noted this was the most refined application of the 2.3 turbo yet; its variable ratio rack-and-pinion steering was also criticized for being overly light and lacking feel. The lack of low end torque was also reflected in Automobile’s review and the feedback given by owners to Popular Mechanics, but those owners also praised its high-speed stability, plush ride, fuel economy and refinement.

Of the major buff books, Car & Driver heaped the most praise upon the XR4Ti, awarding it one of their 10Best trophies for 1985 and picking it over the 300ZX, Starion and Mustang SVO in a comparison test (but below the Supra and Audi Coupe). But even they acknowledged the XR4Ti could have been a better canyon carver, with the sporty hatch suffering from a bit of body roll in corners. Still, they were impressed with its overall practicality and dynamics.

The XR4Ti was the closest thing to a 3-Series rival that Ford sold in North America, but its dynamic deficiencies betrayed its humble mainstream origins. Fortunately, the XR4ti offered a unique body style and striking styling that meant it wasn’t just a pale and subpar 3-Series imitator. And for the time, the XR4Ti was quite a speedy car, even if the boost didn’t really kick in until 3000rpm.

Ford commissioned 800 dealers with selling the new sub-brand, but that number was soon cut back to 600. Slow sales were to blame: its debut year logged 8974 sales, when around 15-20,000 annual sales were anticipated. Sales rose to 14,315 in 1986, but this upward tick was short-lived and sales would sink by half and continue to fall until the XR4ti’s final year, 1989, where a dismal 2,870 were sold. In total, Ford sold 42,464 XR4Tis over five years.

Ford didn’t invest much in any meaningful changes during this time; changes were limited to an extra 5hp, subtler rear spoiler, BBS-style wheels and monochromatic paint schemes in 1988 and the addition of cruise control in 1989.

At launch, the XR4ti was priced lineball with the BMW 318i at around $16,500. Although the Merkur was considerably quicker than the Bimmer despite being around 500lbs heavier, this pricing was a tad ambitious given Merkur’s complete lack of brand identity. Having them sold at Lincoln-Mercury dealers by salespeople more accustomed to selling higher-margin Town Cars undoubtedly had a detrimental effect on the fledgling marque’s sales. This was not being positioned as a VW alternative: the XR4Ti was playing in the big leagues. The larger Scorpio would flop in a similar fashion.

Perhaps the slow sales were because the XR4Ti was neither fish nor fowl. It lacked the snob appeal of a more established European badge, but its positioning and pricing placed it firmly in Euro sport sedan territory. Those who wanted a domestic car with a gutsy turbo may have preferred to just buy a similarly-priced Mustang SVO, Thunderbird Turbo Coupe or one of the various K-Car derived turbo Chryslers. Chrysler’s LeBaron GTS, also launched in 1985, featured an advertising campaign where it was compared to BMWs; it also featured a mid-size, hatchback body, but its base price was around $6k lower than the XR4Ti.

Bob Lutz, then Chairman and CEO of Ford Europe, was the man who had spearheaded the launch of Merkur. Never stricken with “Not Invented Here” syndrome, Lutz would go on to federalize other non-American cars for sale in his long and prestigious career, including the Holden Monaro and Commodore as the Pontiac GTO and G8. The Merkur experiment was not his finest hour, and although the idea of bringing European Fords over had worked before and was fine in theory – witness the later success of the Ford Focus, for example – selling said Fords under an obscurely named, poorly marketed sub-brand was not.

When a product flops like the XR4Ti did, it makes one wonder. Could the car have been more successful if it was badged as a Mercury and priced slightly lower? Would the handsome 1987 Sierra Sapphire sedan body have been better received, or did the XR4Ti’s striking appearance aid sales? Would the sporty hatch have been more successful if they’d used a more modern automatic, added rear disc brakes, dialled down the body roll and given it better low-end torque?

Bringing over the 204 hp Sierra RS Cosworth and the later 224 hp Sierra RS500 Cosworth could have also spiced things up a little, although such an introduction would have been implausible even if the XR4Ti had achieved greater commercial success.

The XR4Ti, and indeed the whole Merkur saga, quickly faded from the public consciousness although a devoted enthusiast community remains. Mystifyingly, Car & Driver rescinded the XR4Ti’s 10Best award in 2009, although they made it clear it wasn’t a bad car. The XR4Ti didn’t flop because it was bad. It failed because it was ambitiously priced and poorly marketed and could have used just a tad more polish. It’s a shame that instead of a success to study, the Merkur brand ended up being a failure to dissect.

49 Comments

Call the XR4Ti a “Mercury Capri” and it might have had a bit more staying power. It also would have been a baby step towards re-establishing the marque as a upscale Ford with a touch of European flair for American prices. Slot the Scorpio/Sapphire slightly above the Sable and you’d have something a bit more compelling to customers than an unknown nameplate.

It didn’t help that the XR4Ti was going up against the E30, probably the best BMW (at least the most fondly thought of after the 2002) the company ever made. And to a lot of enthusiasts (I’ll admit I border on that line) the last “real” BMW ever made. Everything afterwards has been “Lexus mit handling”.

Agree – marketing and price were these cars downfall. I remember thinking Ford really missed the marketing approach – underestimating the public again – most US folks knew that Ford had extensive European operations, with some very nice cars. Just saying “Ford of Europe” would have worked much better.

My recollection was that while the 2.3 was smoothed out somewhat, it was still too rough and unrefined in this application.

Had the chance to drive a few of these back when they were new. They were great cars, nice interiors, good ergonomics for the day with an upright driving position and great visibility (which stood out in comparison to the Camaro/TA competition which were horrifying cars to actually navigate down the road).

These also had really nice Euro-style moonroofs, which were still unusual at that time, T-Tops still being all the rage.

They also handled quite well and had a look that, while not to everyone’s taste, was distinctive and modern. I didn’t even mind the powertrain choice – I’ve always liked the Turbo Lima Block – although they probably would have been better served by the 5.0L Windsor Block.

Marketing these things as a new brand was a huge miscalculation. Too bad, because turning Mercury into an outlet for European Fords was probably as good as any strategy available for them.

Price and complete lack of identity were to blame for Merkur’s failure. You do raise an interesting point I’ve never thought about before – that Ford could’ve positioned Merkur as a direct VW competitor. I don’t think any advertisements at the time even compared the XR4Ti to a Volkswagen. It is a shane these cars didn’t sell well, as they’ve always fascinated me.

Back in the day these did nothing for me at all – to my eyes they looked too much like a tarted-up Escort. How little attention did I pay to them? Until reading this I never knew they were rear wheel drive. Still do not care for the looks of the thing.

Now the Scorpio, there was a car I thought was slick. Clearly I was in the minority. Only real exposure I had to Merkurs outside of the new car shows was a Scorpio my cousin’s husband had as a company car when he worked for Ford. I recall him telling me many of his colleagues also had Scorpios because they just were not selling.

I really wanted to love these cars when they came over. I had spent some time in Germany in the late 1970’s and was blown away by the German Fords. During the 80’s, FoMoCo implied they would start bringing over more German (or Euro at least) Ford models. I guess this was the first one.

I drove these after having my turbo Capri, and my two V8 Capris (Fox bodies). The XR4Ti seemed pretty nice after the clunky Foxes, but the Lima 2.3L turbo in these didn’t *feel* as strong as it had in the SVO or even in my wheezy 1980 Capri RS. I was let down.

FoMoCo made a huge number of mistakes with this car. By the 1980’s, Mercury’s motorsport days were just a shadow of what they were in the 1970’s. Ford tried a similar strategy to GM at the time, which was to take the intermediate makes (Buick, Olds & Pontiac) and race them in SCCA, IMSA and other road racing series in an attempt to push them upscale and against BMW, Mazda and other ‘racy’ marques.

While GM’s strategy worked for a while, it went nowhere with Ford/Mercury. I was a huge fan of the Trans Am series back then, but the push with the Capri first and then the Merkur, failed to gain any traction. By the end of the 80’s, Ford gave up and just raced Mustangs in those series instead. At least Mustang had the mindshare.

The point of my diversion was that successes on track didn’t equal successes in the showroom. By the 1980’s Lincoln Mercury division had become synonymous with the Town Car, Cougar and the Grand Marquis. No one cared about established nameplates like Capri anymore so who would care about a name that was hard to pronounce and looked like a mistake in English?

The car really didn’t fit in anywhere in the line up and was really expensive. If you wanted a fast Mercury (and I was about one of seven people who did), you bought a V8 Cougar or Capri. Why spend the extra bucks on a whatdidyoucallthat thing again? Murker?

The best thing they could have done was to stuff the 5.0L in there and play up the successes the South Africans had with racing V8 Sierras. Oh wait, South Africa was a bad place in the late 1980’s.

Excellent article, Stopford. I remember being super excited that the Ford Sierra I had admired a few years prior while in Europe had made it Stateside. (I think I still have my Corgi Sierra somewhere in storage.) Always liked these cars. I felt like our Tempo, though a good-looking car, was a janky approximation of the Sierra in notchback form.

I wonder over the long term renaming the Cortina and retaining RWD was a mistake. Sierra could not be used in USA because of the Olds and changing a name is usually not a sign of success. In northern USA, Canada, and perhaps the northern and Alpine parts of Europe, RWD would have been a detractor compared the almost universal FWD competition.

To an car fan, the Sierra looks so much more exciting than a Tempo or a J car. Remember most would have had low power Escort CVH engines and the RWD would have come with a weight penalty. Lutz would clearly think his time would be better spent making BMWs, but I wonder if his champagne wishes and caviar dreams, short changed Ford in the European battle for actual sales.

The silly name and obvious lack of seriousness by Ford in pricing and commitment doomed this car in USA. That said, a large number survive thanks to their dedicated fans, and I always get a kick of seeing that great rear spoiler. The biplane has to be up there with the Porsche whale tale and the Charger Daytona/Super Bee in bad ass spoiler heaven.

William thanks for the writeup. You did a great job pontificating the might have beens, What fun.

Only knew one guy who bought an XR4Ti, a pseudo-sophisticated, smug jerk who instantly would put off anyone who had the misfortune to come in contact with him. Dislike of the car came by association. Later heard he took a bath at trade-in time, couldn’t happen to a nicer guy!

I read somewhere that many LM dealers didn`t want to sell the Merkur because they were worried that they would another slow selling hard to unload and not ready for America car on their hands. Cadillac should have learned from the Merkur mistake with the Allante and when they decieded to bring and market the Catera to America, but, like they say,thats another story.At least Catera was easier to pronounce tahn Merkur. Rhymes with worker?

Excellent write up. In summary: Odd name, expensive, an engine that was mostly unloved in other Ford products, bland styling from the front to the B pillar, odd styling from the B to the back bumper, duplicitous to other products in Mercury showrooms – specifically the Mustang based Capri and the Cougar which offered styling, engines and prices that U.S. buyers felt were a better value, and almost no chance that a BMW buyer would cross shop in a showroom where Lincoln Town Cars could be seen in the background.

My summary is how I felt about the car in 1985, and my feelings haven’t changed 30 years later.

i owned a first-year XR4Ti in white, and it was a happy successor to my Mustang GT – crisp handling, buzzy but fun engine, surprising utility – until it wound up defining the term “lemon” for me for years to come. Blame impetuous youth for buying a first-year model, but the AC manifold sprang a leak and it was a four-month wait for the part, no small headache when you’re living in Dallas in the summertime. Then the ECM began crapping out at amazingly inopportune times. As did its replacement. And so on. And so on. I was a “Ford guy” from a Ford family, Detroit born and bred, and the entire experience sent me into Honda and Nissan showrooms. The one grace of it all was that a noxiously-competitive colleague of mine ran out and bought a Scorpio and wagged it at me as admitted one-upsmanship, and his wound up an even bigger dog.

I had to double-check your name to make sure you aren’t a guy I used to work with in Dallas who owned XR4Ti for a couple years. His story was exactly the same as yours. He got stranded for well more than an hour in the median of I-35 on an August afternoon thanks to a failed ECU. He would never drive home again without a half gallon of drinking water with him, claiming he darn near actually died of thirst.

He loved the car but he came to dread it. It broke a lot, he said. He also said that the mechanics at the Mercury dealership all hated working on it as they didn’t understand it, couldn’t diagnosis it, and it took forever to get parts. I can’t remember – Did Mercury mechnics even have metric tools by the time these came out or did they have to be specially issued? The only place where your stories vary is that he remained a Mercury Man – but only genuine big V-8’s made in USA, thank you

Good story, William. Of the whole high-performance Ford Sierra range I like the RS Cosworth sedan the most.
A wolf in sheep’s clothing, my favorite type of cars. Move along folks, nothing to see here, just a Ford sedan….

Another midsized high-performance sedan, built by a mainstream automaker, was the Peugeot 405 T16 from the early nineties. Constant 4WD and 200 hp from a 2.0 liter 16v turbo engine.

I found these tempting but never drove one, though a friend had a Scorpio that I rode in a few times. It was nice but didn’t seem at all sporty … almost a precursor to the Avalon. This was a good history of a car that was briefly visible but has now faded away. However, I don’t really agree with the opening context-setting which makes the analogy between these cars and today’s Fiesta, Focus, and Fusion. The Merkur was yet another captive import like the Cortina, Capri, Opel etc. that came before it. Today’s small Ford lineup, is a truly global line. GM did come close with global platforms (Saturn/Opel and now Buick/Opel) but the common global design AND branding on the Focus and Fiesta are unique as far as I know for an American company. The Chevy Cruze was going in that direction, but it’s now going to lose the Chevy brand in most countries. By the way, why wasn’t the larger Merkur called the Skorpio?

The Chevy Cruze is not available here anymore, nor will it be rebranded / rebadged in the future.

GM’s C-segment car in Europe is the Opel Astra,

My understanding is the Cruze and Astra are built on the same Delta II platform. The previous Astra and Chevrolet Cobalt were both Deltas. My suspicion is that Chevy was established in Europe because GM wanted to sell Opel. Now that they have decided to keep Opel, Chevy in Europe is redundant, hence should be eliminated. I wish VW would realize how redundant Skoda and SEAT are.

Rumor has it that Honda will regress to a single platform for all Civics. Over the last few generations the European and North American Civics were totally different cars. The upside is that the US will apparently receive hatchback Civics from the UK plant to supplement the US and Canadian build sedans and coupes. It will be interesting to see how high the commonality is between the hatch and sedan models. Ideally, they will maximize the degree of interchangeability of repair/maintenance parts between the two so hatch buyers will not be faced with having a low volume variant with difficult to find parts.

The Mk5/6 Rabbit/Golf the US received were built in Germany, but looked much like the Mexican built Mk5 Jetta, and the mainstream German built Golf/Rabbit models used the same Mexican built 5 cylinder and Japanese built automatic trans as the Mexican Jettas.

So why do Ford and GM have so much trouble wrapping their brains around building the high volume 4 door sedan version of a model in the US, while sourcing hatchback and wagon variants, niche models in the US but mainstream in Europe, from Europe, designed to maximize parts interchangeability with the US built versions?

Imagine a Saturn ION sedan, that was essentially an Astra H with a trunk, supplemented with hatchback and wagon versions from Opel, but powered by the US 2.2L/GM automatic, rather than the underpowered 1.8 and Aisin transmissions that the Astra H hatchbacks were burdened with when they finally were imported in 2008.

Nope, GM and Ford always seem to want to create a large number of orphan captive imports with a tiny installed base and minimal parts and service support, or else the US only gets the white bread 4 door sedan version, while missing out on the hatch and wagon versions that are built in Europe.
/rant

pic: Opel Astra H sedan that Saturn could have built, instead of the ION

Opel based instrument panel Saturn could have had, instead of the ION’s ghastly center cluster,

Steve

Posted July 8, 2015 at 11:05 AM

Astra J hatchback that we could have had in the US along side the Cruze sedans.

Johannes Dutch

Posted July 8, 2015 at 12:27 PM

I’ve read that the new generation is (up to) 200 kg lighter than the outgoing model and is built on GM’s D2XX platform, it’s also a bit smaller than the current model.

Here’s the dash of the new Astra K:

Steve

Posted July 8, 2015 at 2:47 PM

Here’s the dash of the new Astra K:

Looks nice enough, though I am no fan of in dash video games. It’s a lot better than the dash the 2012 US market Focus had. The buttons on the Focus center stack looked like they had been styled to look like a cell phone keypad, but by the time it came out, cell phones didn’t look like that anymore.

VW’s MQB platform also boasts of significant weight savings. US fuel economy regulations were changed a few years ago, so each vehicle is assigned a fuel consumption target based on it’s footprint, the product of wheelbase and track. So expect the design trend to be large vehicles with the wheels pushed out to the extreme corners of the body, like the old Renault R5. because the farther out they push the wheels, the lower the miles per gallon consumption target will be, and very lightly built.

The problem I have with the Astra K is they have gone to the Asian extreme wedge profile with a very high beltline and tiny windows in the back. Have you noticed how much the new 5 door looks like the current Mazda 3? Of course China is now the largest auto market in the world, so it’s no surprise that GM would decree that every division ape Asian styling. I’ll stick with VW and their more rational styling.

Speaking of low volume orphans, have you heard that GM will import the Opel Cascada here next year, and sell it as a Buick? It’s based on the Astra J, which is at the end of it’s life, so I expect the Cascada to sell in small numbers for a year or two, then be dropped, leaving another few thousand GM customers watching the parts and service support for their cars vanish because there will be so few of them on the ground.

Bob Lutz covered his version of the XRs failure on the corporate end back in a 1998 interview.

“I’ll tell you where the mistake was made, in my judgment. We all wanted it as a Ford of Europe export program, as opposed to an NAO import program, and many of us wanted the car to be put through the import networks and just almost totally disassociated from Ford. We wanted a separate [advertising] agency that would take a completely different approach and address itself to import owners who at that time were a completely different breed. The last thing in the world we wanted was an agency like [Young & Rubicam] coming up with headlines like “Bavarian Scream,” which, when the car wasn’t even from Bavaria, you know, I mean, it was so absurd.”

Many mistakes were made with what was a pretty good car in my experience. One standout mistake was the Turbo 2.3. Think about the logistics in building this engine. Cast in Brazil, shipped to Lima, Ohio for assembly, then shipped to Karmann in Cologne for installation.. Yikes!

The transmissions were another issue, the T-9 and the C3 were two of the worst transmissions for a car that everyone knew was going to get thrashed on at some point..
If I were ever to pick up another one I’d probably toss the Turbo 2.3 and swap in a massaged 2.8/2.9 with a T-5 or even an SROD 4 speed and call it a day.

I liked the b-plane on these (I’m one in the minority, I know) but thought they were FWD until I met a guy who had one. After I bought one I realized they weren’t German cars built by Ford, but Fords built in Germany. Big difference. A/C hose ruptured due to its proximity over the turbo. Turbos in these needed an intercooler badly. Installing an I/C and putting in rear disc brakes are the two mods that tuners perform the most. After that it’s dropping in a 5.0 Mustang motor with the beefier and less notchy T-5 transmission, and the list goes on. Great handling with an IRS, but too many drawbacks IMHO. Sold it so I could buy an M-B. No regrets.

I can’t say I’ve ever seen the 1988-1989 facelift, but I didn’t realize how rare they were – fewer than 10,000 facelift models were made, according to Wikipedia (less than a quarter of total production). I associate this car so much with the biplane spoiler that it looks strange without it (though arguably cleaner).

Can’t say I’ve ever seen a Scorpio – I assume it would have been a hard sell both over the much less expensive Sable in the same showroom and its intended competition such as the Acura Legend. There was especially little reason to buy one over a 1989 SHO or Nissan Maxima.

It’s tough to pinpoint exactly why the XR4Ti (and Merkur, as a whole) failed. It seemed competent enough, if a bit unrefined. I suppose Ford just tried to create a caché for a new product line (and charge a premium price for it) where none had existed before, at least in the US.

Maybe if they had built up to it, over time, it might have eventually succeeded. But Ford didn’t feel like waiting, and Merkur bombed. A smoother V6 engine (instead of the thrashing turbo 4) probably wouldn’t have hurt, either. BMW’s fours, although not as powerful, were more suited to the upmarket feel.

When the Sierra was introduced in the U.K. to replace the Cortina, it did quite poorly at first. After 5 generations of the boxy ‘tina, the jelly-mold Sierra was a big shock. As was pointed out: had any of the other Sierra body styles been sent over and/or utilized instead of this largish 3 door hatchback, the story might have ended differently. Then there’s that name, as bad and difficult to pronounce as Isuzu, not a good idea on a new brand that sells against other more established brands.
Then there’s the powertrain….odd that they COULDN’T engineer the 2.8 for use in the XR4ti, but they could use it in the Scorpio. I would be tempted to believe the XR4ti used that turbo 4 so that room would be made for the V6 in the more expensive sedan.
Supposedly not possible due to currency “fluctuations”, but it would have been interesting if Ford had kept selling the Fiesta and added the XR4ti and the Scorpio at a Euro Ford dealer network.

Finally, there is one of these for sale on Craigslist near me. It’s advertised as having 67,000 original miles, but unfortunately also has that “wretched” C3 automatic. And what a difference 30 years makes….a 2.3 liter engine in a sporty car producing 145 horsepower with turbocharging!!!!

MT:
When I lived in Memphis in the 80s and 90s there were at least 2 or 3 Scorpios in the area. (Memphis had a LOT of “early adopters”). Aside from looking a bit too narrow compared to most cars at it’s price point, they were nice cars. Oddly, they were also hatchbacks, but with a bit of a trunk lid…..a bit like a LeBaron GTS/Dodge Lancer of the same time period. Certainly good competition for an Alfa 164.

I thought this were really cool when they were on sale. Then again, I was 8, so I was pretty easily impressed.

I wonder how much the fact that they were sold through Lincoln/Mercury dealers hurt them. I’m guessing the average Lincoln/Mercury customer was much older, and more interested in chrome and fake wood interior trim, than kind of person an XR4TI would appeal to.

Reading over the comments and doing a bit of thinking, I came to a couple of conclusions as to the failure of the Merkur brand:

1. Ford didn’t have a clue regarding what they were up against, and, as a result, oversimplified both the problem and their solution. They saw the 3-series BMW taking off in the US and decided they needed a BMW fighter. At least they figured they needed the German cachet, just redoing a Mustang or other Fox body wasn’t going to cut it with the intended audience. Anyone who bought a BMW in the 80’s wouldn’t be caught dead in anything American, if only for the snobbery.

Unfortunately, they take a garden variety Ford, something that I would have figured as the German or British equivalent (in market intent) to an LTD II or something along those lines, and put it up against a car that from the moment of inception was designed to sell in a price class or two above the garden variety European sedan. Drive an E30 BMW and you rapidly realize that, despite the very stark interior, this is a car that is not intended to be bought by the usual workingman. This is a luxury car, in a world where luxury does not mean baroque.

2. The engine. When you’re going up against a company who has become the world standard for the in-line six cylinder engine, and their fours are just as refined, you don’t drop a rough running four with what passed for turbocharging in the 80’s (can you say turbo lag?) and figure you’re competing.

3. The dealerships. I’ll give the Lincoln/Mercury dealers credit, the did move a few Capris, especially the first generation ones. So they got the Pantera. And had absolutely no clue what to do with it. Then the XR4Ti. Ditto. And they didn’t do all that well with the Maverick era Comet. Or the Bobcat. Ditto Lynx. Or, quite frankly, anything that wasn’t a V-8 engined, automatic transmissioned, rear driven, sold rear axle, bench seat with column shift dinosaur car. Modern variations of what they were making in the 1940’s. That was your L/M dealer mindset . . . . . . . and clientele.

So, without realizing it, Ford decided to go up against BMW in American back in the day when a BMW actually was “the ultimate driving machine” and definitely superior to just about any other car at the time. When BMW was making the reputation that they’re happily coasting on now. And Ford tried to do it on the cheap and easy, figuring that the American car buying public, having little to no knowledge of what kind of car the base Scorpio was, wouldn’t notice that they were being given a Ford and expected to pay something resembling Lincoln prices for it. Because it was made in Germany. And sporting.

Yep. From a European perspective, the first thing the article made me think was “That’s all very well, but they were trying to compete against a very well-sorted BMW… with a Sierra?”

These things were taxis, family cars, salesmen’s cars here. Probably the most obvious US counterpart was the Crown Vic. It wasn’t RWD because it was a driver’s car, it was because it was aimed at conservative buyers and they didn’t want to scare away the people who had so religiously bought Cortinas. ( although they did their best with the initial styling)

Merkur debuted about a year before Honda rolled out its Acura brand and 4 years ahead of Toyota’s Lexus. A pitty Ford didn’t spend more time and money fully developing these cars. Imagine how a 1988 Merkur with a sorted out chassis, 4 wheel disc brakes and a Mazda-sourced Miller-cycle V6 (XR6i?) might have been received.

Your specs for the Merkur are not an improvement, in my opinion. Ford was right to go with a 4 banger. It needed to be lighter, not heavier, which is exactly what a v6 would do. And it needed better brakes…and a better turbo.

Nice piece William. I think the car would have done better being sold as a non-branded Ford like the DeTomaso Pantera, through L/M dealers.

The target audience should have been gearheads only, who of course knew all about the car. The engine should have been the Cologne V6 punched out and fuel injected. RS or Cosworth trim only. To the target audience, gearheads, that thrashy Lima Turbo was an absolute deal breaker.

They wasted money on Merkur. Mercury would have been too old sounding. You weren’t going to get the yuppies when the BMWs and Volvos were so good and coveted for their names. It’s like they didn’t have a target buyer in mind. it should have been guys like Bob.

A nice stable mate to the US Ford Sierra would have been the Capri III. Some of the later ones were absolutely awesome, Cologne V6 and all, and would be highly sought after today.

As possibly the world’s biggest Sierra fan, I heartily approve of this post William! For a bit more history on the Sierra, see my post on my Sierra from last year. My magnificent Sierra is now almost finished; just the ABS’s electronic brain to sort out. The 3-door XR4i/Merkur shell is by far my favourite version of the shape.

Interesting shot of the console. My Dad rented a Sierra two years straight when we went on summer holiday one in Holland for a whirlwind European tour through Belgium, France, Switzerland and Germany, then the next year in England. What I remember is my Dad struggling trying to get it into first gear. Most times he was shifting it back into third. The knob was slightly twisted and it didn’t line up to where it should have been. We had a Fiesta hot hatch in Jersey the next year but I can’t recall him having trouble with that one. That was quite fun on those narrow roads.

I wonder how the Sierra sapphire RS cosworth 4×4 would have fared in the U.S? Those things were absolutely mental, never mind being priced in BMW territory, the cosworth would leave BMWs in the dust. They had mustang 5.0 GT performance from a 2.0 turbo 4, but handled amazingly and 4×4 meant it wouldn’t lose traction when cornering. Truly one of Ford’s greatest hits.